Metro commuters are highly educated, 20 somethings

A survey on the Dubai Metro found most passengers are in their 20s, have bachelor's degrees and earn a salary of up to Dh5,000.

DUBAI // The typical commuter on the Dubai Metro is highly educated, in his or her 20s and in a low-paying job, a report shows.

The Dubai Metro User Characteristics report found most passengers have bachelor’s degrees and earn a monthly salary of up to Dh5,000.

“The overwhelming majority are highly educated. Illiterate users are less than 2 per cent,” according to the report, conducted by the Roads and Transport Authority.

Fifty five per cent had a bachelor’s degree; 10 per cent had a master’s; 1 per cent had a PhD; while 15 per cent had only completed high school.

Nearly two thirds of users earned a monthly salary of Dh5,000 or below, although 5.5 per cent of people who responded said they earned more than Dh20,000 a month.

“I’m not surprised by this result,” said Yousef Ali, from Pakistan, who works in sales in Business Bay.

“The Metro is so cheap that it makes sense for people with lower incomes to use it, although I was surprised about the education level of the users.”

Mr Ali, who commutes daily from his home in Deira to his office, described the Metro as a lifeline for many in the city.

“If you don’t have a car and are on a lower income, it used to be tricky to get around the city unless you knew someone with a car,” he said. “But with the Metro you can get pretty much anywhere you want in the city.”

The study backs that up, with just over 80 per cent of users saying they do not own a car.

“There are encouraging signs of the popularity of using the public transit among car owners,” the study found.

Just under half of those questioned used the Metro to commute to and from their place of work. Six per cent of people used it for tourism, 12 per cent for shopping and 18 per cent to reach their homes.

Almost two thirds said the main reason they used the service was for short journeys.

Twenty-two per cent said it was their favoured mode of transport because of the low fares, while 7 per cent and 5 per cent respectively said they used it because a station was close to their work or home.

Fifty-three per cent of users were aged between 21 and 30, while 30 per cent of passengers were aged 31 to 40.

“I’ve been using the Metro since it was launched,” said Janet Stevens, from the UK. “I can’t think of a cheaper metro system anywhere else in the world and now they are opening more stations.

“But I think they should put on more trains because they are always full now, especially over the weekends.”

The driverless Metro system began operation on September 9, 2009 with 29 stations on the red line. The 20-station green line was opened in March 2010.